With luck, you'll never find yourself alone, far from civilization, faced with the task of ensuring your own survival. If you do, this 1950s training video from the US Navy has some valuable tips and tricks to help you find safe food and water, build shelter, and take care of yourself.

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It's a bit long, but it's full of useful information. For being severely dated, the video still offers a wealth of useful information on edible plants and animals, how to build snare traps and dress game, and then prepare them properly for consumption. The illustrations walk you through identifying wild nuts, ferns, roots, and even moss or lichen that's often plentiful in forested areas. The video also shows you how to identify animals and insects that also make good eating in an emergency. From there, the video walks you through how to procure the right kinds of plants and animals for eating, and then finally into how to prepare them safely. To be sure, not everything in the video is 100% true, and this is a starting point for additional research if you're interested in survival, but the broad points are worth remembering in case of an emergency.

The focus of the video is on the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, including the US and Canada, northern Europe, and Russia. The arctic and the tropics aren't included. There are similarities to other parts of the world, and tips that are applicable anywhere, so pick and choose what works for your part of the world. With luck, you'll never need any of this, but if you do, it's all information that's good to have in the back of your head. For more, check out the video description over at YouTube at the link below.